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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 




NOTES ON THE ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF 

CHILDREN AMONG SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED 

PEOPLES, WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



BY 



Dr. J. H. PORTER. 



From the Report of the National Museum, i886-'87, pages 213-235. 






WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1889. 



► 




0:i 15 1904 
D. of D. 



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ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 213 



NOTES ON THE ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN 
AMONG SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED PEOPLES. 

[with a bibliography.] 

By Dr. J. H. Porter. 

The accompaDying notes are collected from various sources as a sup- 
plement to Professor Mason's paper on " The Cradles of the American 
Aborigines."* The time allotted did not permit the compiler to exhaust 
the subject, but enough is here given to show the practices concerning 
children in their first year throughout the world, and the varied beliefs 
obtaining as to the effects of such treatment. In the future the subject 
will receive more careful and .systematic study. 

The author embraces this opportunity to express his obligation to 
the librarians of the State, War, and Navy Departments at Washing- 
ton for many courtesies. 

~ Intentional modifications of the form of the head, although less gen- 
eral than other fashions by which conformity to an ideal of beauty has 
been attemped, have, nevertheless, been widely prevalent among races 
of men, but can not be said to include all the variations from an average 
cranial type actually existing in nature. The ethnical classification of 
M. Topinard (Elements d'Anthropologie Gene rale) displays deforma- 
tion with reference to race in a manner which fulfills all practical 
requirements. Deformity is, however, as real when slight as when 
excessive, and apart from those distortions he has described, from the 
many which are due to pathological causes, and the yet more numerous 
deviations from symmetry which unintentionally exerted pressure pro- 
duces in the incompletely ossified skull, there still remain those varia- 
tions in the processes of nutrition and growth through whicli assymetry 
becomes the rule not in the head and not in man only, but iu the homol- 
ogous parts of all axially developed animals. 

As a matter of fact, and exclusive of the embryological identity of 
their elements, an ideal head is no more demonstrable than an ideal 
vertebra; and whatever may be hereafter accomplished, at i)resent the 
anatomical and physiological constants of neither can be determined 
in detail. It therefore appears to be inexact to speak of the deformities 
of an organ whose conformation has not been distinctly ascertained. 
In addition to this, only a small portion of mankind have arrived at 
any common judgment on the subject of cranial Contour, and wherever 
a standard is furnished by such a consensus of opinion, tliis is derived 
from art and not from science. Both empirical knowledge and i)hysio- 
logical principles justify the general conclusion that the artistic form is 
that which is usually associated with superior brain power ; but it does 
not at all follow that an alteration of outline that would destroy the 
former would similarly affect the latter. Such facts undoubtedly dis- 

^ Most of the bigliogiapliy rclatiug to the artiiiciai deformatiou of chiidreu iu North 
America is embodied in Professor Mason's work. 



^ 



CCopv \) 



214 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

parage alike tlie methods and the results of anthropological research 
iu certain directions, but they neither obviate the necessity of initiating 
further study from existing information, nor impugn its value as a whole. 

In considering the natural history of the human head, account must 
be taken of the fact that man, while not alone in this resi)ect, is never- 
theless an exceedingly aberrant form among the Mammalia. On any 
theory of life, however, except that of special creation, and independ- 
ently of conflicting estimates of the systematic implications of structure, 
the organization of this most highly specialized being must be regarded 
as the outcome of descent, with modification, and should therefore be 
considered in connection with that of the groups to which man is affil- 
iated. 

As has been said, there is no absolute form for the head or for the 
vertebrse of which it is composed, and the fact that all classifications 
resting upon its features have failed, does not encourage the hope that 
the results sought through craniometry will be attained by means of its 
descriptive anatomy. All that can be i^roperly affirmed is, that during 
the immemorial series of adjustments by which the mammals culmi- 
nated in man, and in which evolutional changes of all orders are in- 
cluded, the human head assumed an incompletely distinctive form, which 
is, both in itself and in the causes which determine its variations, more 
or less clearly revealed in the tribal history of mankind. The state- 
ment that the anthropoid head becomes less human with development 
has been generally united with the assumption that this implies im- 
portant generic differences between them, and if the observation were 
true in the sense in which it is for the most part understood, it would 
do so. Its special significance is, however, detracted from by the gen- 
eral truth that in zoology the rule is that, for obvious reasons, young 
creatures are less differentiated than those which are mature; while, 
on the other hand, the difficulty of discriminating between the adult 
brains of some of the higher apes and those of certain savages, may be 
considered as qualifying the former assertion to so great a degree as to 
suggest error, or at least inexactness, in the observation, ^o doubt 
the mistake is partially attributable to misconceptions arising from an 
idea of the fixity of species, but in itself, the error is involved in all 
comparisons between unlike things. To found a parallel upon the ex- 
ternal tables of the skull, as if these were equally characteristic and 
similarly developed in a gorilla and a man, is to include in the terms 
dissimilar elements, and thereby vitiate the comparison. The contours 
of the head in these instances are difiereutly related, and, considering 
the plates of the skull especially, the external table of the ape's cra- 
nium is much more prominently associated with the muscular appar- 
atus than is the case with man, in whom the subordination of the en- 
tire head to the encei)halon is exceptional. This is but a single illus- 
tration of the general fact that throughout the vertebrate class the cra- 
nium proi)er, amid innumerable subordinate variations, assumes the 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 215 

more specialized character of a brain-case as we ascend in the organic 
scale. In fishes, where the head contains other organs than those of 
the nervous system, its indefinite relations to the cerebro- spinal axis 
are conspicuous. Among the Reptilia, though containing only the brain, 
the extreme disproportion between the head and its contents indicates 
that its conformity with the cerebral ganglia is subsidiary to other con- 
formities; while in birds the limited range of the cranial cavity, as 
contrasted with its range when compared with the bulk of the body, 
conveys in a modified form the implication of increasing specialization 
of the head. As might be expected, the anatomical evidence furnished 
by the Mammalia is corroborative of that derived from lower groups. 
No variation, however extreme, is competent to free a structure from 
the influence of heredity, and it might be argued a priori that the hu- 
man head would have the outlines of its history delineated in the mor- 
phology of the primates. 

The facts in this instance justify the anticipation. As in the develop- 
mental record of birds, among which the ornithic stamp, either general 
or special, is but gradually and indirectly evolved, so also with the 
more immediate congeners of man, where the more salient characteris- 
tics of his type, distributed throughout a group of anthropoids, do not 
admit of consecutive arrangement, and can not be attributed in their 
totality to any specific form. From the primates, as from the other 
mammalian sub-classes, a cranial figure involved in the metameric de- 
velopment of the encephalon, gradually disengages itself and becomes 
more regular and more definite in its cerebral relations as the grade of 
organization is elevated; so that the profiles associated with ganglionic 
mass increase in prominence, while those which are otherwise associated 
correspondingly diminish. 

These anatomical traits link themselves naturally with physiological 
co-ordinates. Everywhere encephalic structure is related, though not 
directly, to function. Enhanced importance in the brain implicates in- 
creased solidarity in the entire organism. As the cerebral elements 
grow in multiplicity, variety, and complexity, this development is con- 
comitant with cranial amalgamation, with progressiv^e obliteration of 
the features attaching to lower forms, with condensation of the ence- 
phalic ganglia, with a moredirectcorrespondence between the skull and 
brain, and finally with a greater conformity of the bodywith the head. 

Whatever phylogeuetic significance may be found in these facts, their 
morphological and physiological bearing is unmistakable. Through 
quite various structural gradations there appears, though not in linear 
sequence, "a series of forms," which ultimately display in modifications 
of cranial contour a more definite coaptation of the envelope to its con- 
tained viscus in developmental progress, and in the falling away and 
weakening of its muscular attachments, the paramount function of the 
skull as a brain-case, and the subordination of its structure to that of 
the organ which it incloses. 



216 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

It is not necessary here to consider the elements which compose or- 
ganic form or the conditions that determine their arrangement. The 
process, so far as the head is concerned, has been, to a great extent, 
masked among the vertebrates by adaptation to other than encephalic 
relations, while the part was carried through the cartilaginous, semi- 
osseous, unamalgamated, and consolidated types of crania, to one which, 
as rei)resentative of the most important organ in the body, has been 
commonly selected by the anthropologists for investigation, and generally 
believed to promise results corresponding with its position and the 
function it sustains. Tried by the tests afforded by craniometry, how- 
ever, it appears to have little or no taxinomical value, since the outcome 
of these measurements is to transpose races and fuse peoples otherwise 
known to be distinct. 

At the same time, in man, cranial outlines are unquestionably pre- 
ponderantly determined by the brain, while the features by which its 
action is obscured have been so frequently and completely described that 
they need not be recapitulated. But although this statement holds on 
the morphological side of the question, from the physiological stand- 
I)oint the case is not the same. The brain limits the shape of the head 
and is itself limited by the laws of growth, heredity, and structural 
correlativity; but in the phenomenal series cerebral development is 
antecedent to cranial evolution, and the relation subsisting between 
these — a relation which is in its nature causal, so far as shape is con- 
cerned — places the factors upon different planes, hi virtue of prepon- 
derant function and equivalent x^reponderance of structure in special 
ganglia, a general form of head has been attained ; but from fluctuations 
jn the energies by which it was produced in correspondence with varia- 
tions in the conditions of life, this form varies both in human and i)re- 
human history, and so widely as to have thus far prevented classifi- 
cation. 

That the organ through which all adjustments to the environment 
are primarily made should vary among groups whose lowest aggregates 
are nearly as passive to tbe direct action of natural selection as beasts, 
and whose higher forms are but partially and incompletely adjusted, is 
not surprising; and while it must be assumed upon biological grounds 
that the i)lasticity of the brain has lessened since its deviation from ilie 
ancestral type, whence issued in diveigent lines that of man and liis 
congeners, still, the facts of descent suggest that to its organic variability, 
and to that expressed in specific adaptations, there must be added a 
strong inherited tendency in this direction. 

The cerebral history of the primates seems to warrant the theoretical 
conclusion that among these great variability of the head exists. 

In Lemuri(he, where the cranium relatively to the face is small, and 
the ethmoidal, tentorial, and occipital i)lanes are greatly inclined to- 
wards tlie basi-cranial axis, the brain scarcely exceeils the base of the 
skull in length, whereas in Simiadie the eucephalon is more than twice as 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 217 

long. The anterior cerebral lobes in the Arctopithecini compare in mass 
with those of anthropoids, while the posterior lobes are more developed 
than in certain races of men. Among the Platyrrhini great cranial va- 
riations correspond with extreme contrasts in brain structure and mass. 
The low facial angle, inclined tentorial i^lane, and perpendicularity of 
the axis of the occipital foramen to that of the cranial base, belong, as 
in Mycetes, to a type in which the cerebellum is scarcely covered, while 
in Ohrysothrix the posterior lobes of the cerebrum are of relatively 
greater proportions than in any of the Mammalia; and, moreover, the 
vertex is arched, the facial angle large, the basi-cranial axis short, as 
compared with its cavity, and the planes of the occipital foramen and 
tentorium are in correspondence. The surface of the brain in Oebus is 
nearly as much convoluted as that of the catarrh ine apes, but the 
sulci fade almost to obliteration through Pithecia, Ohrysothrix, and 
Nictipithecus. On the other hand, by the nearly total structural mask- 
ing of the annectant gyri of the external perpendicular fissure, the brain 
in Ateles rises above the catarrhine type. 

Diversities such as these, occurring within the limits of a single 
group, put craniological classification out of the question ; but in Catar- 
rhines and Anthropidse differences obtain, which, though less extreme, 
are equally decisive, and without anatomical details, for which there is 
no space, it maybe said that the heads and brains of Semnopitheci and 
Colobi vary from those of Macaci and Oynocephali as significantly as 
the same structures do in the man-like apes. Apparently, then, no typi- 
cal cranium exists among the simians any more than among men, from 
whom an artistic preconception has to a great extent concealed its 
absence. 

With regard to this standard of art, also, it must be remembered that 
it is primarily one of /orm, while, physiologically, form has no necessary 
connection with the constitution of a ganglion. Such expressions as 
"nervous arc'' and " reflex action " emphasizeasif essential, that which, 
except contingently, has nothing to do with either curves or angles. In 
"the building of a brain" the terminal elements of nervous tracts are 
cellular, and agglomeration therefore results in the composition of a 
mass attached to a pedicle. Nothing which is generally more exact than 
this can be advanced. Components like these make up the parts and 
wholes of all nervous systems, and how they have combined in man and 
his class, and with what degree of uniformity, has already been indicated. 

Of course it is not meant that the human head has not an average 
shape, or that this or any other part whose conformation is due to ac- 
tions and reactions between an ancestral group and its entire environ- 
ment, could alter otherwise than infinitesimally under the incidence of 
discontinuous forces. Nor is it intended to say that the harmony which 
exists in other instances between an organ and its properties is here 
ignored. No more than in any other machine or structure can the 
skull be considered as unaffected by the laws which co-ordinate mechan- 



218 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

ical and fuDctional fituess with fmictional aud mechaDical requirements. 
But resemblances of this kind are not those which are contemplated in 
anthropometry, where the relations of structure and function, aud of 
those to the conditions of life, have been disregarded in a search for 
morphological constants, whose occurrence, under the circumstances, 
was biologically impossible. Much but not all has been done towards 
a science of man, when the divergent forms of his class have been 
united by forms that are intermediate, aud when his pedigree has been 
reconstructed on the basis of kinshii). The whole question of race is 
included in this generalization, although it is not thereby fully ex- 
plained, neither is it likely to be elucidated by measurements. 

Without pursuing the subject further it may be remarked that, ab- 
stractly, structure and function are determined in all organisms by the 
affinities of their units of composition j that complete homogeneity in 
a group of protoplasts is impossible, and that inij;ial diversities will in- 
crease during evolution. The minuteness of these ultimates may not 
add to the difficulty of comprehension more than is the case with those 
dealt with by molecular phj'sics and chemistry, but it is otherwise when 
the plasticity of life is added. That adaptation is connected with 
changes in function and structure is obvious, but neither in an organ- 
ism, an organ, nor in the plastidules which compose them, is adaptation 
a final term in the progress from homogeneity to heterogeneity, from 
simplicity to complexity, from indefiniteness to definiteness ; since, with- 
out alteration of elementary composition, there are no conceivable cir- 
cumstances under which re-adjustment can be effected. 

As it is with these phenomena which lie at the foundation of life, so 
is it with all the vital phenomena to which natural and sexual selection, 
growth, survival, genesis, heredity apply. Amid all degrees of compo- 
sition and recomposition, function constitutes the substance, adapta- 
tion the form of life. Every statical or dynamical distribution of or- 
ganic energy by which incident forces are met is included in function ; 
and though in large groups of organisms, correlative changes, structural 
and functional, occur slowly and within comparatively narrow limits, 
yet they are, in the nature of things, relatively indefinite, but contin- 
gently permanent, and do not afford on this subject the data which sys- 
tematic ethnology lequires. Not less than its co-ordinate, the evolution 
of form, does physiological development press for interpretation in every 
question relating to race, and the doctrine that all factors by which dif- 
ferences among men are worked out are resolvable into results of the in- 
tercourse between these and the conditions under which the3^ are placed, 
is essentially a corollary from the persistence of force. 

S[)ace has permftted but the merest sketch of this subject, but there 
yet remains a (puvstion which sooner or later confronts the investigator 
of cranial delormities, and this is that of their transmission. Present 
oiiinion alajost unanimously oi)poses the belief that these may, in any 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 219 

degree, be perpetuated when of artificial origin ; nevertheless it may 
be maintained with reason that the grounds upon which unqualified de- 
nial rests, are theoretically as untenable, in the present state of anthro- 
pological science, as those upon which an unqualified assent could be 
founded. Future results in this direction will depend largely upon the 
possibility of connecting facts of observation with those furnished by 
the experimental physiology of the nervous system. The question is 
a biological one, and without adverting to what has been said concern- 
ing variation, it may be urged that in this, as in all such problems, the 
first necessity is to view them under biological conditions. This re- 
quirement has not in this instance been complied with. Teleological 
preconceptions seem to have been more or less obstructive of the view, 
and equally so, incorrect parallels between alterations apparently within 
the limits of health, and those which involve morbid consequences. 

There is no doubt that modifications of development involve functional 
modifications, and that imperceptible molecular changes in the brain 
rest on precisely the same basis as perceptible ones in other parts of 
the body. The inconceivability of spontaneous variation, properly so 
called, the heredity of function as well as of structure, the certainty 
that if structure changed by function is transmitted, any alterations of 
structure which have physiologically altered function must be also in- 
herited, appear to suggest an explanation of certain phenomena con- 
nected with this subject, which, except on the principle of descent, do 
not seem to be interpretable at all. 

According to the statements of Mr. Spencer, there is reason to think 
that special structures of all varieties proceed from the special polari- 
ties of their organic units, and that any tissue or combination of tis- 
sues will impress the modifications it may have experienced upon its 
component elements, between which and the aggregate life implies 
perpetual action and reaction. If this .process, as must be generally 
the case, takes place under normal conditions, the forces manifested 
tend towards equilibrium without reaching, practically, an exact physi- 
ological balance. During these adjustments and re- adjustments, how- 
ever, one of two alternative results inevitably occurs. Either the 
structure will take the shape determined by the pre-existing tendencies 
of its elements, or the aggregate's altered form will mould these into 
harmony with itself. The question thus becomes one of affection of 
function, because, for every reason, it must be assumed that structural 
elements organically changed will, when acting as reproductive centers, 
engender similar changes. 

To oppose to these statements the common assertion that mutilations 
do not become congenital, is to misconceive their character, and to con- 
found pathological conditions with those which must be normal in order 
to be effective. It may readily be suspected that the impossibility of 
inheriting artificial alterations has been too hastily assumed, since this 
involves an additional assumption, which has not been demonstrated, 



220 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MU8EUM, 1887. 

viz, that such changes do not become organic because they may occur 
without implicating function. The profouud alterations effected by 
artificial selection are, of course, due to functional modifications, but it 
has not been shown that these can not be artificially induced, or that 
deformation must be universally morbid in character because it is a 
departure from such standards of organic type as now exist in imagi- 
nation. 

On the morphological side the question seems equally uncertain. 
Given, however, any cause which will effectually modify function, and 
modification of structure is inevitable. No naturalist supposes that the 
digital variations recorded as inherited, or those of the teeth, skin, etc., 
are attributable to any other cause than physiological change j and the 
same with transmitted club-foot, harelip, amaurosis, deafness. Fur- 
ther, adjustments by involution take place in nature as well as those 
by evolution, and although there are no structures whose properties are 
not originally ascribable to predetermined structural traits, there are 
yet structures which have no discoverable physiological features; and 
while morphological species, or species whose specific forms have no 
biological value, are recognized in zoologj^, and which, whether perma- 
nently or not, are withdrawn from the action of natural selection, it is 
difficult to see why the production of variety by any means that would 
effectually change function should be disallowed. 

As was stated, there are reasons for suspecting that some such process 
has occurred among mankind to a limited extent ; but whether or not, 
when all accessible information on the subject is organized, this may 
not prove to be a misconception attributable to insufiicient knowledge, 
remains to be determined. 

GENERAL NOTES ON DEFORMATION. 

Malte-Brun. (G6ographie Universelle. Ed. of Lavall6e. Paris, 1858. 4to, t. 1.) 
General remarks on the causes and modes of distortion of the head (p. 303). 

Humboldt & Boupland. (Voyage, etc. Paris, 1811. 4to, 3^ partie, t. 1. "Essai 
Politique, etc.) Remarks on head-llattening, its character and cause among Indians 
of North and South America. (Note, pp. 89, 90.) 

Jeffcrys remarks upon the fine forms of the Indians of North America, and says the 
fact is attributable to " their bodies not being swathed and straitened in the cradle " 
(part I, p 9(i). The cradle-board was in use among all the tribes described by him j 
but this error is not surprising in an author who characterizes the Eskimaux as " tall 
of stature," and speaks of " their flaxen hair, their beards, the whiteness of their skin 
* * * quite as fair as that of Europeans" (part 1, p. 43). Certain blond tribes do 
occur among the Hyperborean races, but not where Jelferys places them ; although 
the, Eskimaux are not rtmlly dark skinned. With regard to the fine forms so constantly 
noted among th(i American and other savages, most writers have ascribed it to their 
modes of life; Humboldt adding, in the case of the Americans, a certain racial ira- 
l)laHticity. Most of the earlier authorities have evidently judged an assumed eth- 
nological fact from the stand-point of a social theory. There does not appear to be 
any natural re.ason wliy a savage should be better shaped than a civilized man, and 
that this is the case remains to bo shown. There is, however, an excellent reason 
why those who are physically defective should be eliminated from all aggregates in 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 221 

a state of savagery, both hj the action of natural selection and by that of their 
fellow-creatures. A very large body of proof could be readily brought forward to 
support the view that WrangelFs statement concerning the Chukchees held true of 
most peoples in a similar social phase, viz : "La mort attend rcnfjint qui a le malheur 
de naltre avec quelque difformit^." Le Nord do la Sib^rie. Paris, 1843, vol. i, p. 267. 
Kennan and Bush made like observations in the same region, and Capt. John G. 
Bourke, U. S. Army, has pointed ont that in the south this custom is mentioned by 
Padre Gumilla (*' Orinosc." Madrid, 1741, p. 344), and by Clavigero (Historia de la 
Baja California. Mexico, 1852, p. 27). I do not recall auy reference of the same kind 
in Hennepin, Le Clerc, Charlevoix, etc.; but though the custom may have existed 
among the northern tribes, despite Robertson's assertion that all the American Indians 
killed the children who " appeared feeble or defective" (Hist. Dis. & Set. of America. 
N. Y., 1856, p. 144), there is no doubt that in the literature of travel it is more fre- 
quently mentioned as occurring among the southern tribes ; and this may have been 
one reason why the earlier discoverers, Columbus, Vespucci, Verrazzauo, &c., have 
spoken only of the fine appearance of the natives. The same contrasts, however, 
are found in savage life in this as in other respects. Captain Bourke confirms from 
personal observation the statement make in Emory's " Reconnoissance" (p. 61), that 
among the Apaches the deformed are sometimes well cared for. He also refers to a 
like mention in Francis Parkman (The Jesuits in North America. Boston, 1867, 
Introductory, xl), and also to Peter Martyr's narrative (Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 5, 
p. 357). 

In connection with head-flattening in America, Humboldt (Political Essay on New 
Spain. London, 1814. 8vo, vol. i) asserts that the back-head is naturally flat (p. 
155). Also that the American cranium is normally "depressed backwards * * * 
among nations to whom the means of artificially producing deformity are * * * 
unknown." The Aztecs " never disfigure the heads of their children." The Mexican, 
Peruvian, and Aturean heads — all flattened ; those Bonpland and himself procured 
were natural. "Certain hordes do compress the heads of children" (pp. 154, 155). 

Squier (The States of Central America. N. Y., 1858. 8vo) quotes Valenzuela to 
the effect that among the Indians found by the Spanish at Lacandon (Dolores), Gua- 
temala, "the cradles for their children were made of reeds" (p. 567). 

Under the heading Tete, Encyclopedic des Sciences, etc., Neufchatel, 1765, is the 
following : "II est parld dans les voyages et dans les geographies modernes, do cer- 
tains peuples qui se rendeut la tete plat que la main, et qui mettent la tete de lours 
enfans, d^s qu'ils sent nes, entre deux presses, ou planches, sur le front et le der- 
ri^re de la tdte pour I'applatir." 

NOTES ON AMERICA. 

Bancroft. (Native Rp.ces of the Pacific States, N. Y., 1873, vol. i.) Chichimec 
women carried their infants on the back, "wrapped in a coarse cotton cloth, leaving 
the head and arms free" (p. 633). The cradle was a wicker basket suspended from 
a beam or bough (p. 633). 

Gomara (Con. Mex., fol. 318) states that the occiput was flattened among the Nahua 
nations by an arrangement of the cradle, this form being considered becoming. (Ban- 
croft, Native Races, etc., vol. ii, p. 281.) 

Humboldt's statement that the Aztecs did not distort the head was, as Bancroft 
remarks (Native Races, vol. ii, p. 281), too sweeping. That the custom "was prac- 
ticed to a considerable extent in remote times by people inhabiting the country seems 
to be shown by the deformed skulls found in their graves, and by the sculptured 
figures upon the ruins." Klemm states that "the cradle consisted of a hard board to 
which the infant was bound in such a manner as to cause the malformation." 

Sahagun, Torqueraada, Clavigero, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Carbazal Espinosa say 
that when a Teochichimec child was born on a journey "the new-born babe was 
placed in a wicker basket and thrown over the back of the mother." (Bancroft, 
Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y., 1875, vol. ii, p. 271, note.) 



222 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



" Torquemada (Book xiv, ch. 24) states that the ludiaus," in Mexico, "used to de- 
form their heads with a view to appear more formidable." (Spencer, Des. Soc. An- 
cient Mexicans, Central Americans, etc., p. 27.) 

Landa (§ XX). ** The ludiaus of Yucatan are, * * * as a rule, * * * how- 
legged, for in their infancy their mothers carry them about suspended at their haunch- 
bones. They were made 'squint-eyed,'" and their heads were flattened artificially. 
(Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, Central Americans, etc., p. 27.) 

Landa (^ xxx) describes the process: "Four or live days after birth the child was 
put on a small bed made of rods, and there, the face being underneath, the head was 
put between two boards, in front and behind. Between these they compressed it 
* * * until the head was flattened and shaped like their own." (Idem, \). 27.) 

Brancroft. (Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y., 1873, vol. i.) The Quiche 
womau (Central America) carries her baby on her back "in a cloth passed around 
her body" (p. 704). 

Bancroft. (Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y., 1875, vol. ii, 8vo.) The Nica- 
ragua and Yucatan infants' heads were compressed and permanently flattened be- 
tween two boards as a sign of noble birth. Squier asserts that occipital flattening 
was effected by the cradle-board among the Qnichds, Cakchiquels, and Zutugils 
(pp. 731, 732). Don Horatio Guzmfin, minister from Nicaragua, informs me that uo 
compression of the head and no swathing of the infant is now practiced in any part 
of that country. 

Bancroft. (Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y., 1873, vol. i.) The Smoos 
Indians of the Mosquito Group flatten the forehead by a process like that in use 
among the Columbians (p. 717). 

Fuentcs. (Palacio, p. 106.) In Guatemala children were fattened "to a board by 
means of straps wound round the body * * * from the feet to the shoulders, in 
consequence of which all the Indians have the backs of their heads smooth and flat." 
(Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, Central Americans, etc., p. 28.) 

Jeff'erys, T. (Nat. and Civil Hist, of French Dominions in North and South America. 
London, 1760, fol.) Among the aborigines of Hispaniola "the singular conformation 
of the head * * * is effected by art." Mothers jiressed their infant's skull, either 
by hand or with boards, until it was distorted, "and in a manner bent back upon 
itself" (Part ir, p. 8). 

Oviedo. (Historia General y Natural de Indias, book 11, chap. 5.) His statement 
of head-flattening is rather vague. "Porqno al tiempo que nacen los uiuos les aprie- 
tan las cabezas," etc. The width of the front head, which he remarks as the result of 
artificial interference, points to the same form, and like appliances, noticed by Porto- 
Seguro, and others, in Brazil. (Idem, book 42, chap. 3.) Gomara is cited as giving 
the same evidence concerning the natives of San Domingo. He says they flattened 
the head with cotton compresses for the purpose of enhirging the face. " Aprietau 
£t los nines la cabeza muy blando, pero mucho entre dos almohadillas de algodon, para 
ensancharles la cara," etc. 

There seems to have been some confusion in Gomara's mind on this subject — Bernal 
Diaz says there was on all subjects. At all events he gives another account of the 
manner in which the infant's head was distorted, which amounts to this: that it was 
done by the midwife at the moment of birth, or shortly after. In this case, a very 
common one among different tribes, the fact apparently indicates gradual extinction 
of the custom, since the effect of simple manipulation would bo temporary, and where 
distortion implies as nmch as it sometimes does, its absence exposes the individual to 
the greatest misfortunes. 

Topinard. (l^lcments d' Anthropologic G6n6rale. Paris, 1885. 8vo.) Remarks of 
forms of distortion by manipulation alone that thoy must be impermanent — "incapa- 
blesde produire une ddformation soutenue" (p. 756). Prof. William H. Flower holds 
the saitio views, and, indeed, the fact is lihj'siologically self-evident unless the ma- 
nipulation were of an unprecedented kind. 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 223 

Las Casas (Axjologdtica Historia. Madrid, 1H75, chap. 34) rerparks that in Peru 
head distortion was distinctive of the luca family and of the highest nohility. 
"Privilegio grande concedian los del Peiii ii algiinos senores y que ellos querian fa- 
vorecer" (p. 396, vide Marcot, notes). 

Major, R. H. (Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, etc. Loudon, 1870. Second 
edition, Hakluyt So. Pub.) Dr. Chanca, fleet surgeon on Columbus's second voyage, 
says, of the native and Carib women in the West Indies, that the latter wore ''on 
each leg two bands of woven cotton, the one fastened round the knee, the other 
round, the ankle; by this means they make the calves of their legs large, and the 
above-mentioned parts very small. * * * By this peculiarity we distinguished 
them" (p. 30). 

Dr. Chanca supposed this custom to depend upon an idea that the distortion was 
becoming — "que esto me parece que tienen ellos por cosa geutil" (p. 30). 

De Rochefort, C. (Histoire Naturelle, etc., des lies Antilles, Rotterdam, 1658. 
4to.) Notice of head, and nose flattening among the Caribs (p. 382). 

Humboldt and Bonpland. (Voyage, etc. Paris, 1819. 4to, seconde partie, p. 11. 
Relation Historiqne.) Distortions practiced by the Caribs on the Orinoco (p. 235). 

Squier, E. G. (Nicaragua, etc. New York, 1852. 8vo, Vol. ii.) Head-flattening 
among aborigines. Process and local origin of custom (p. 345). Vide Relaciou of 
Fray Bobadilla on the same points. (Archivo de Indias.) ? 

Heriot, G. (Travels Through the Canadas. Loudon, 1807. 4to.) ''TheCaraibs 
have their foreheads flattened. * * * The head of the infant is compressed into 
this shape by placing on its brow a piece of board tied with a bandage, which is al- 
lowed to remaiji until the bones have acquired consistence" (p. 348). 

Heriot, G. (Travels Through the Canadas. London, 1807, 4to.) Carib girls have 
a cotton sock woven to the leg, and "so closely * * * that the calf thereby ac- 
quires more thickness and solidity than it would naturally possess" (p. 307). 

Armas, Juan I. de. (Les Cranes dits D^form6s. Havana, 1885. ) This is a paper read 
before the Anthropological Society of Havana, November, 1885, to prove thatmechaiii- 
cal deformation of the head was never practiced in the West Indies or on the continent. 

Graells, Vilanova and Areas. (Rapport pr^seut^ h Madrid, le 24 Mars, 1871.) This 
was to the effect that certain crania from Cuba, taken to be flattened Carib skulls, 
could not be identified as artificially deformed, but were probably natural heads. 
The text is, " having noticed that in the front and back part of the head the depres- 
sion is not uniform, the commission is inclined to consider the flattening as natural, 
etc," These skulls seem to have been found by Don R. Ferrer, who very truly says 
that they can not be regarded as specimens of head-flattening among the Caribs, be- 
cause there were never any Caribs in Cuba. (De Armas, Cranes dits D^form^s, p. 7.) 

De Armas (Les Cranes dits D^form^s) says that no such practice could have been 
general in America for various reasons, viz, it was difficult, tedious, and painful, and 
would have been destructive to the intellect (?) ; also that the Indians, though sav- 
ages, were men with natural feelings toward their offspring which would have pre- 
vented them from perpetrating a custom so destructive as distortion of the head (p. 
14 etseq.). Having given this illustration of his knowledge of the literature of an- 
thropology, he declares that neither among the Peruvian mummies nor in the exist- 
ing race could von Tchudi and Rivero discover a justification of the theory of me- 
chanical deformation. A fact, and a singular one, but no more decisive than Robert- 
son's statement that the mound skulls of North America are all normal (pp. 14, 15). 
In conclusion he remarks that "there is no basis, scientific, historical, or rational, 
on which to rest the affirmation that there were * * * and are * * * parts 
of America in which the natural formation of the head was (or is) modified by me- 
chanical means." And more particularly is this a self-evident truth with regard to 
the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles: first, because none of the earliest chroniclers 
speak of the custom ; and second, because the crania of this people have not the form 
attributed to them. Of course it was not possible for de Armas to deny the unsym- 



224 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

metrical contour of certain skulls, but he asserted that this was natural, and if the 
statement could be relied on, none could be made of more importance. The weight of 
evidence is, however, overwhelmingly against him. 

De Armas also asserts that Oviedo was the originator of the idea that distortion of 
the cranium was customary among the Indians of San Domingo, etc., but Gomara, 
Las Casas, De Leon, and Garcilasso de la Vega make like statements, and the evidence 
includes West Indian, Peruvian, Floridian tribes. 

Walker (Colombia. London, 1822. 8vo) quotes Humboldt to the effect that among 
the Caribs of Panapana ''the women * * * carried their infants on their backs.'* 
They also, for the sake of adornment, compress the thighs and legs by " broad strips 
of cotton cloth, by which" the flesh * * * was swelled in the interstices. * * * 
They attach great importance to certain forms of the body. (Vol. i, p. 545.) 

Ileriot, G. (Travels through the Canadas. London, 1807. 4to.) " The natives of 
South America generally make use of hammocks of cotton or of the interior bark of 
trees. * * * This they suspend in their cabins and sometimes on the boughs of 
trees" (p. 287). 

Sefior Mutis Duran, of the Colombian legation at Washington, states that no tribe 
of Indians known to him in New Granada or Colombia distorts the head, but that cra- 
nial compression may be practiced by other tribes of this area which he had not ob- 
served. Bandaging infants with the idea of preserving the symmetry of their forms 
is general among all classes. The cradles used by the wealthy are imported or made 
after European models. Among the poorer classes there are two forms of cradle 
in u.se — one a boat-shaped case of light wood or bamboo, which will rock on any 
piano surface, and another constructed of similar materials and of like form, which is 
suspended from the end of a crooked rod and swung in the air. 

Hilhouse, William. (Warow Land of British Guiana. Jour. Roy. Geo. Soc. Lon- 
don, 1834. Vol. IV.) Dr. Hancock remarks (note, pp. 332, 333, on Hilhouse's account 
of the Indians seen here) that ''these tribes have also," i. e., like the coast tribes of 
the Maraiion, " the spread in the foot, or duck's foot. * * * Their feet and toes 
are spread out in the manner most suitable for walking on the muddy shores and 
marshes they inhabit." 

Im Thurn, E. F. (Among the Indians of Guiana (i. e., British Guiana). London, 
1883. 8vo.) Head-flattening customary among people of upper Essequibo River ; 
formerly prevalent among chief tribes throughout Guiana and among ail "true 
Caribs" (p. 191). Distortion of women's legs by Caribs (p. 192). 

Ploss, Dr. H. (Das Kind im Branch und SittederVolker. Leipzig, 1884. 2Aufl., 
2 Band.) Description of the treatment of infants in Peru under the Incas (Idem, p. 
57). The sanie with respect to children in Asiatic Turkey and Chinese Turkestan 
(idem, p. 60). Reniarks on the effects of position at rest {Idem, pp. 81, 82). State- 
ments concerning the cradle-board and head-flattening in America {Idem, pp. 101 
102). Description of the suckling-board and swaddling of infants among the Maron- 
ites and Modern Germans {Idem, p. 113, 114). 

Squier, E. G. (Peru, etc. New York, 1877. 8vo.) Distorted Aymara skull from 
Chulpas (p. '244). 

Appendix B. Extract from Fourth Annual Report of Peabody Museum. Cam- 
l)ridge. Remarks of Professor Wyman " On crania. Two modes of distortion, their 
effects," etc. (pp. 580, 581). Vide Padre Arriaga on this custom. 

Prichard, .7. C. (Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. London, 184L 
4th ed. 8vo) quotes Spix and Martius on the separation of the great toe among the 
Puris, Coropos, and Coroados, South America. 

Marcoy, P. (Travels in South America. London, 1875. 4to.) Head-flattening 
formerly practiced by Peruvian Conibos. Obsolete withiu two generations. All 
very old people seen by Marcoy had distorted crania; no young persons. (Vol. ii, p. 
40, and note.) 

Acosta, Joaq. (p. 24). The Panches (Chibchas) compressed the skulls of infants be- 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 225 

tween boards into a ''pyramidal" shape. (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, 
Central Americans, etc., p. 28.) 

Idem. Lengthening (apart from piercing) the lobe of the ear was a royal fashion 
of the first four lucas. After Mayta-Cnpas it became desiguative of the Cnracas 
(Caciques) of the body guard. Now prevalent among certain tribes of the Amazons, 
e. g., the Orejones (Spanish), broad-ears. (Vol. ii, p. 270.) 

Piedrahita. (Book 1, ch. 2.) The Coyaimas and Natagaymas (Chibchas) ''have 
the custom of putting the tender head of a new-born child between two boards 
* * * in snch a way that it * * * gets flattened." The Pichaos and Panches 
of the same stock do this also. (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, etc., p. 28.) 

Idem. Compression of the head into the shape of "a bishop's mitre." (FtrfePorto- 
Seguro.) Now obsolete among the Omagnas or Flatheads — a Spanish corruption of 
the Qnichua Omahuas. These are an emigrant stock — the Umaiias, called by the 
Tupinambas of Brazil Jcanga-pena (flatheads), which was contracted and corrupted 
by the Portuguese into Cambebas, whence La Condamine's mistake. {Vide Ref.) 
He mistook a title for a race name. (Vol. ii, 340-342.) 

Cieza (ch. 100) says of the Peruvian CoUas that "their heads are very long and 
flattened behind, because they are pressed and flattened into what shape they choose 
during childhood." (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, Central Americans, etc., 
p. 28.) 

Owen, Prof. R. (Anatomy of the Vertebrates. London, 1866. 8vo.) In the Inca 
race the skull "is high behind, owing to the habit of carrying the infant with the 
back of the head resting on a flat board, the pressure usually producing unsymme- 
trical distortion of the occipital part of the skull." (Vol. ii, p. 567.) The same state- 
ment is made coucerning the Patagonians. (Vol. ii, p. 568.) 

Cieza (ch. 50). Among the Caraques of Peru the child's head was pressed between 
boards, so that it " was long and broad, but flat behind." The Indians said this was 
conducive to health and vigor. (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, Central 
Americans, etc., p. 28.) 

Idem. Pis. Nos. 386, 387, and 388, vol. 11, p. 567, exhibit artificially distorted 
skulls of the ancient Pernvians from Titicaca. 

Meyen (p. 36) mentions a decree of the Lima Synod of 1585 against flattening the 
head. Rivero and Tschudi say that the irregularities in crania from the coast of 
Peru " were undoubtedly produced by mechanical causes" (p. 32). Santa Cruz, Nar- 
ratives, p. 78, states that MancoCapac introduced head-flattening to make the people 
silly and easily ruled. (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, etc., p. 28.) 

Marcoy, P. (Travels in South America. London, 1875. 4to.) Notice of custom 
of distorting the head among the Aymaras. (Vol. i, pp. 67, 68.) Old Aymara sculp- 
tures showing vertical and antero-posterior flattening. (Vol. 1, p. 185.) This work 
contains many " typical portraits" (1, 103) "taken from life" (1, 518). If correct at 
all, the Quichuas on the west, and Antis and Chonlaquiro Indians east of the Andes, 
distort their heads now, though Marcoy does not say so. ( Vide pis. Vol. i, pp. 103, 
476, 515.) 

Torquemada (Book xiv, ch. 25) affirms that permission to shape the heads of their 
children was aiavor granted by the Inca to some nobles, e. </., the artificial contour was 
that of the royal family. (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, Central Americans, 
etc., p. 28.) 

In all these contemporary fac-similes, and in the portrait medallions (Vol. i, pp. 210, 
216, sixteenth century) of Incas and Coyas — "The Imperial Tree" — it is noteworthy 
that, if the delineation is at all accurate, some heads are distorted and some not. 
It is not possible in this instance to reconcile the portraits with Las Casus' statement 
that after the fourth Inca the custom ceased. 

Ulloa, Juan and Antonio de. (Vo^'^age to South America. London, 1807. 8vo.) 
Among the Quito Indians, "their beds consist of two or three sheepskins, without 
pillows or anything else." (Vol. i, pp. 408, 409.) Children are carried on the mothers' 
shoulders. ( Vol . i, p. 409. ) 

H. Mis. 600. pt. 2 15 



226 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

Miers, J. (Travels in Chili and La Plata. Loudon, 1826. Bvo.) The Pampa In- 
dians ''nev^er walk any distance * * * some use saddles, but not all; * * * 
they are ill made." (Vol. i, pp. '256, 257.) Dr. Lei oh ton says of the " horse " Indians 
of Chili, that *' their legs are generally bandy." (Vol. ii, p. 473.) 

Among the Indians of Chili, ^' the child is slung in a kind of basket, formed of a 
wooden hoop having a net- work stretched across it; it is hung by thongs to the roof 
of the hut." (Vol. II, p. 462.) 

De La Condamine, (Relation Abrdgde d'un Voyage, etc. Maestricht, 1778. 12mo.) 
Derivation of the tribal names, Omaguas and Camberas, from the custom of flatten- 
ing the head; notice of the process (p. 70). Vide Porto-Seguro, Historia Geral do 
Brazil. Vol. i, pp. 18, 19. 

Porto-Seguro. (Historia Geral do Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, 1878. 8vo. Vol. i. 
Head-Flattening.) Etymological remarks on the derivation of the name of certain 
Tupi (Guaranie) tribes, from what appears to be antero-posterior compression. 
«* Parecidas a mitras de bispos." (Vol. i, pp. 18, 19.) 

Sou they remarks (History of Brazil. London, 1819. 4to. Vol, iii, p. 703) that 
when Ribeiro encountered the remains of the Omagua at Oliven^a in 1774, ''they 
had left ofif the apparatus for flattening the foreheads and elongating the heads of 
their infants; still they admired the old standard of beauty so much that they 
moulded them by hand; but the custom is now wholly disused."' In Note 32, Vol. 
Ill, p. 896, he adds that '' several tribes of the Rio Negro flattened their heads like 
the Omaguas." Humboldt (Political Essay on New Spain. London, 1814. 8vo. Vol. 
I, p. 154) says, "the barbarous custom * * * of pressing the heads of children 
between two boards" in South America, ''was, like the Greek exaggeration of the 
facial angle, the Kalmuck nose, the Hottentot lips, an attempt to conform to an ideal 
of beauty." 

Spix and Martins. (Travels in Brazil". London, 1824. 8vo.) It is stated that the 
women of the Coroados of East Brazil " carry their children about on their backs," 
and from the context, as well as the fact that the sleeping-cradle is a hammock, it 
seems probable that they are carried in a sling. (Vol. ii, p. 247.) 

Brown and Lidstone. (Fifteen Thousand Miles on the Amazon, etc. London, 
1878. 8vo.) They mention another exception to the use of the hammock. The 
Pamary Indians, on the Rio Negro, " have not the peculiarity of using hammocks, but 
sleep on the floor of their tents" on "mats of plaited palm leaves" (p. 433). 

Heriot, G. (Travels Through the Canadas. London, 1807. 4to.) "The Brazil- 
ians, and several other nations in South America," plunge the new-born infant into 
water. It is then "swaddled to little boards lined with cotton, and more frequently 
with moss" (p. 343). 

In connection with references to nose-flattening as a custom among Brazilian and 
other South American Indians, the following indicates both the variability of the 
facial type and that of the standard to which nasal contour conforms when arti- 
ficially modified. De Moussy, V. M. (Description, etc., de la Confederation Argen- 
tine. Paris, 1860. 8vo.) quotes d'Orbigny's L'homme am6ricain, etc., to the eff'ect 
that in the Peruvian branch of the Ando-Peruviau race the nose is long and high— 
"uez long, tres aquilin." In the Antisian branch of same race it varies—" nez vari- 
able." In the Araucanian branch of same race it is " tr5s court." The Pampa branch 
ofthcPampean race have the "nez tr&s-court, tres-6pat<5, a narines larges, ouvertes." 
Among the Chiquiteau branch of this race the nose is "court, un pen dpat6." In the 
thiid or Moxcan branch of the Pampeau: race it is "court, peu large." Among the 
Gnurani tribes of the Brazilio-Guaranian race, the feature isdescribed as "nez court, 
(itroit, narines dtroites." Length is a natural characteristic ; the rest may be natural 
or artificial, but no doubt are largely modifications. Vide references, passim. (Vol. 
IF, pp. 145-147 ; note.) 

Dobrizhofier, M. (An Account of the Abipones. Loudon, 1822. 8vo.) Father 
Dobrizhoffer was in Paraguay from 1749 to 1767, and his ethnological matter is ex- 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATIOK OF CHILDREN. 227 

ceptionally valuable. Of a certain tribe at Mbaevera he says: "The mothers put 
their babies in wicker basliets, ami carry them on their shoulders." (Vol. i, p. 62.) 
This is the first notice of any cradle but a sling in this region. 

Dobrizhoffer, M. (An Account of the Abipones, London, 1822. 8vo.) The 
mounted tribes — Indios bravos — of Paraguay '*do not use stirrups, and most of them 
are unfurnished with saddles, even." This fact accounts for the excessive curvature 
of the legs noticed in previous references. (Vol. i, p. 230.) 

Dobrizhoffer remarks of the Abipones of Chaco, also "an equestrian people," but 
who are provided with saddles, though "stirrups are not in general use," that "you 
never see an Abipone with * * * bandy legs." Like the Kirghiz, all these In- 
dians ride more than they walk, and are placed on horseback at the earliest age. 
Father Dobrizhoffer's statement is not in accordance with the facts of common obser- 
vation in this regard; but, taken with some reservation, the greater symmetry of 
limb among the tribes of Chaco is evidently due to the difference of position involved 
in the use of a saddle. (Vol. ii, p. 113.) 

King, Col. J. A. (Twenty-four Years in the Argentine Republic. London, 1846. 
8vo.) The Chirivione Indians of Gran-Chaco would not eat mutton for fear " their 
noses would become flat" (p. 109). 

Parrish, Sir W. (Buenos Ayres. London, 1852. 8vo.) Speaking ofthePehuen- 
ches — "Pine Trees" — a Pampa branch, he says: "I have seen some of these Indians 
who, from being so constantly on horseback, had become bow-legged to such an ex- 
tent of deformity that the soles of their feet were turned inward, etc." (p. 173). 
This points to the absence of a saddle, such as used, at least, by their congeners, the 
Tehuelches-Patagonians. 

Harris, J. (Navigantium atque Itinerantiura Bibliotheca. London, 1744. Folio.) 
Sebald de Weert speaks of the "crooked legs " of a certain Indian woman found in the 
Straits of Magellan. (Vol. i, p. 42.) From what is said afterwards {Idem. p. 43) this 
was evidently a Fuegian. 

There are several references to the distortion of limbs among the Fuegians, and to its 
cause. As an example of the uncertainty attaching to reports of the early voyagers, 
Harris', Navigantium, etc., quotes Jaques le Hermite, Voyage of Circumnavigation, 
1623, to the effect that the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego were " as fair as any in 
Europe; * * * very strong and well proportioned, and generally about the 
height of the people in Europe." (Vol. i, p. 71.) Of the same kind is Captain Cow- 
ley's statement, made from personal observation, that the Hottentots " are born white, 
but make themselves black with soot." (Harris's Bibliotheca, Vol. i, p. 83.) 

Cook, Captain. (Voyages, etc. London, 1773. 8vo.) Describing the beds of the 
natives of Terra del Fuego, says that " a little grass * * * served both for bed 
and chairs." (Vol. ii, p. 55.) 

NOTES ON EUROPE. 

Rae, Ed. (The White Sea Peninsula. London, 1881. 8vo.) Bowed legs are men- 
tioned as characteristic of the Norwegian Lapps. Not a pure race like those of South 
Finmark and Terski Lapland. Distortion probably due to the skin-bag cradle (p. 
232). 

Laing, S. (Journal of a Residence in Norway. London, 1836. 8vo.) He describes 
as a characteristic the bowed legs of the Norwegian Lapps. " They form a curve 
with the leg-bone down to the foot, so that in standing with their feet close together 
all above is far apart" (p. 247). Pressure in the hood, etc., during infancy probably 
causes this. 

Panofka, T. (Manners and Customs of the Greeks. London, 1849. 4to.) Descrip- 
tion of the AtKvov, or wicker, shoe-shaped swinging cradle of Greece (Pt. ii). 

Guhl and Koner. (Life of the Greeks and Romans. London, . 8vo.) "The 

antique cradle," i. e., the KUvov of the Heroic age, "consisted of a flat swing of bas- 
ket-work." The child, enveloped in the aivdpyava, must necessarily have been bound 



228 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

to this. In the shoe-shaped bnaket-cradle the infant occupied a sitting position 
{vide pi., p. 195). The last-named cradle had handles, by which it could bo carried 
or swung. Subsequently, Avhen communication with Asia was constant, other forms 
of the cradle came into use, "cradles similar to our own modern ones" (pp. 195, 
196). The cKupyava, used everywhere in Greece, except in Sparta, were designed to 
prevent distortion. Besides the swaddling-clothes, however, there was in common 
use a sufficient variety of bed-clothes to make any kind of resting place for the child 
soft enough to insure safety against pressure, viz, the Kkivrj of Homer was covered 
with hides (Kuea), and over this lay the pvyea, blankets or mattress, perhaps. At 
all events, the later Kvepa2.ov was a sack of some kind of stuff filled with feathers, 
picked wool, etc., and was laid across the straps of the St/nviay or folding bed (cot). 
There were also linen sheets, the blankets before mentioned, and some kind of a 
heavier covering, presumably of wool, since it was rough on both sides— TrepLaTpufiara, 
eTTiBAvf^ara, etc. — together with stuffed pillows and bolsters. 

Professor Becker (Charicles, London, 1880; Excursus, pp. 221, 222) gives much the 
same account of the Greek bed and bedding as Guhl and Kouer, Life of the Greeks and 
Romans (p. 136, et seq.). Cradles, he says, are first mentioned by Plutarch. "Plato 
knew nothing of them." No author of his age can be said to have mentioned " a 
regular cradle." Mothers probably carried their children in their arms, and these 
*' were not encouraged to walk very early." Wet-nurses were commonly employed, 
and among these the Spartan women were the most famous. 

Potter, Dr. J. (Archseologia Graeca. New York, 1825. 8vo. ) It appears that ob- 
servation had taught the Greeks the effects of pressure on immature bones, since 
everywhere, except in Sparta, where the end was otherwise secured, the infant was 
wrapped " in swaddling-bands * * * lest its limbs * * * should happen to 
be distorted" (p. 628). 

Do Perthes, B. (Voyage en Russie. Paris, 1859. 12mo.) Remarks on nose-flat- 
tening in Asiatic Russia, and probable cause of the custom (p. 288). 

Burton and Drake. (Unexplored Syria. London, 1872. 8vo.) Cranium said to 
be Turanian, exhibiting "unilateral flattening * » * from use of the suckling- 
board." (Appendix, vol. li, p. 277.) 

Burton and Drake. (Unexplored Syria. London, 1872. 8vo. Vol. ii. Appendix.) 
Distortion of cranial contour referred to "custom of swathing the child's head 
tightly after birth" {vide Foville on the i)roccss). This distortion of the calvaria 
was in the case of a Semitic (probably Jewish) skull (p. 346), {ihid., Appendix, 
vol. II). Specimen of brachycephalous Graeco-Roman cranium, exhibiting asymmet- 
rical parietal and supra-occipital flattening, partially due to " suckling-board" (pp. 
356,357). 

Seebohm, H. (Siberia in Asia, Loudon, 1882. 8vo), describes an Ost'-yak cradle as 
*' a wooden box, about 3 inches deep, with rounded ends, almost the shape of the 
child." The oval bottom covered with sawdust. Infant wrapped in tlannel and furs, 
and lashed in the cradle. The child is nursed while in this position (pp. 62,63). 

Prichard, J. C. (Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. London, 1841. 
4th ed. 8vo.) He quotes Pallas to the effect that the only deformity visible among 
Kalmnks is "an outward bending of the arms and legs, resulting from the practice 
of causing children to rest in their cradles on a kind of saddle" (vol. i, p. 263). 

Prrjvalsky, Col. N. (Mongolia. London, 1876. 8vo. Vol. i.) Chai)ter ii, page 
47 et seq., " is especially devoted to the ethnology of Mongolia." He says of the Mon- 
gol, "his legs are bowed by constant equestrianism; " but nothing of any form of 
cradle, or mode of carrying infants, or of malformations other than the above, is said 
an 5' where. 

In Pumi)el]y'8 Across America and Asia, La Farge (p. 199) has given fac-similos of 
wood-cuts representing various deformities of the head, evidently artificial. Jap- 
anese art, and especially genre art, is of a high order, not relatively, but positively, 
and as it can not be supposed that such should be the case without a knowledge of 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 229 

the fact tliat all caricature depends for its effect upon an exaggeration of well-known 
characteristics to tiie degree of grotesqueuess, it would be well to inquire if now or 
formerly any custom, etc., justified these contours. 

From Dr. W. W. Rockhill the information is received that in China and Mongolia 
children are carried in the same way as described by Mr. Akaban6 in Japan, except 
that the crossed bands to secure the child on the mother's back are not made use of. 
Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Array, states that the Navajos use a cradle-board similar 
to that described by Major Powell on the Colorado, viz, a buckskin sack fastened to 
a board, into which the infant is put without being swathed. No cradles are used 
by the Japanese, Chinese, or in Mongolia. 

NOTES ON ASIA. 

The Emperor of China, Kien-hing (1736-1796), in his work Mandcliou-yuen-Uon-kaSj 
says: ''The ancient Mandchoussome days after the birth of a child prepared for it a 
little hard bed, and laid it thereon face up. Little by little the back of the head was 
flattened and became larger. The Chinese have a custom opposite to this. Tliey lay 
the new born upon its side, first right, then left, wherefore the head is made nar- 
rower." This would make the Mandchousbrachycephals and the Chinese dolicocephals. 

Busk, George (Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, Nov., 1878, "Notes 
on a skull termed Nabathaean") says that regarding the norma lateralis, its outlines 
" almost suggest that the skull has been constricted by a bandage." 

Spencer, H. (Descriptive Sociology, N. Y. Asiatic Races among the Nomadic 
Arabs.) ''Noble families used to alter the shape of children's headvS." (Table xxxi.) 
This was done in the age of Abou-Zeyd. (Bastian. Mensch. ii, 229. Id., p. 21.) 

Vamb^ry, A. (Sketches of Central Asia. London, 1863. 8vo.) The Turkoman 
head is "proportionally small" and oblong. This form "is ascribed to the circum- 
stance" that infants are not cradled, but " placed * * * in a swing made of linen 
cloth" (p. 296). The Turkomans commonly have "their feet bent inwardly; proba- 
bly the consequence of their continually riding on horseback " (p. 296). 

Pallas, (i, 98, etseq.) The Kalmucks "are well made, with the exception of the legs, 
which are generally bent (arising from being so much on horseback), and slender, 
like the arms." (Spencer, Des. Sociol. Asiatic Races, p. 3.) 

Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind, 2d division. London, 
IS"?. 8vo.) The women among the N^asesa, "who are accustomed to bear heavy 
burdens, have their knees turned inward, and their hips are more or less deformed" 
(p. 347). 

Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind, 2d division. London, 
1887. 8vo.) Among the Nicobar Islanders "the skull is depressed by art" (p. 239). 
"A block of wood answers the purpose of a pillow" (p. 240). 

Langsdorf, G. H. von (Voyages and Travels, London, 1813. 4to) describes the 
Ainos (Japan) as having "compressed noses" (vol. i, p. 328). He says the same of 
the i^eople of Oonalashka (vol. ii, p. 31). It is not stated that this peculiarity is 
produced by artiGcial means. In this, as in a great number of other iustauces, noth- 
ing" is said of the appliances used ; but the inference is that such must have existed in 
the case of infants. The following information, communicated by Mr. Shiro Akaband, 
secretary of the Japanese legation at Washington, exhibits a very simple mode of 
carrying infants on the hack. No cradles of any kind are used in Japan. The child 
is never bandaged. It is wrapped loosely in a cloth of some kind, and placed on a 
soft mattress on the floor. There it remains, except when nursed, until it is old enough 
to clasp the body of its parent with its legs, when it is placed on the back beneath 
the outer garment, and supported by two bands passing over its back like cross-belts. 

History of Kamtchatka( translated and abridged from official Russian account, based 
on all voyages and travels to Kamtchatka and Kurile Islands, by Dr. James Grieve. 
Glocester, 1764. 4to). The Koreki (Koriaks) "use neither cradle nor swaddling- 
cloths," No mention of any kind of bodily malformation (p. 233). 



230 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

As Grieve says lie ouly nieutions facts concerning the Koriaks and Kurile Islanders, 
which are not true of Kamtchatdales, it may be true that in Kamtchatka and the Ku- 
riles cradles are used. 

Both among the Ainos and Tartars, Rollin's descriptions point to distortions. The 
following are his cranial measurements in Saghalieu and at the Baie de Castries: 
Islancl of Tchoka (Saghalien), circumference of head, 1 foot, 10 inches, 4 lines; long 
diameter, 9 inches, 8 lines; short diameter, 5 inches, 8 lines. Baie de Castries, cir- 
cumference of head, 1 foot, 9 inches, 4 lines; long diameter, 9 inches; short diameter, 
5 inches, 4 lines. 

Bush, R. J. (Reindeer, Dogs, and Snow-Shoes. N. Y., 1871. 8vo.) In October Bush 
saw among the Gilaks, on the Amoor, " a babe tightly bandaged in a wooden box or 
cradle, something like that ^^sed by our American Indians, but with its legs from the 
knee downwards unfettered." This cradle was hung vertically to the **ridge-pole" 
of a ''lean-to" shelter, and, the child's feet touching the ground, it ''swung itself" 
(p. 123). In northeast Siberia in January, Bush saw "two little boys," belonging to 
the nomad Tungusians, "lashed together and thrown over a pack-saddle, the one 
balancing the other. * * * They were each sewed up in single garment * * * 
made of heavy reindeer fur." Only the eyes and nose were visible (pp. 240, 241). 

A. E. Nordenskiold (Voyage of the Vega, London, 1881, 8vo, Vol. ii) describes 
"a wide skin covering with the legs and arms sewed together downwards" as the 
substitute for the cradle among the Chukchis. Similar devices used by most polar 
tribes apparently. No visible cause for distortion (p. 102). 

NOTES ON AFRICA. 

Wood, J. G. (Uncivilized Races of Men. Hartford, 1871. 8vo.) The Abyssinian 
midwives mold the features of infants "to make them handsome" (p. 658). 

Wood, J. G. (Uncivilized Races of Men. Hartford, 1871. 8vo.) Among the Fans 
the child is carried astride of a bark belt (p. 530). The "paingkoont" or circular 
mat cloak of Australians serves to carry the child, vertically placed. The Australian 
form is exceptionally line (p. 699). The cradle of the New Zealand infant is a mat 
wrap (p. 817). In New Guinea the child lies "in a sort of sling" of leaves or bark, 
and is so carried (p. 901). 

Alexander, Captain (Jour. Royal Geogr. Soc, London, 1835, Vol. v, p. 318, note) 
says of the Fingoes (or Wanderers) of South Africa, that their "children are carried 
behind wrapped in the kaross." 

Little, H. (Madagascar, Edinburgh and London, 1884. 12mo.) The Magalasy 
" mother carries her infant upon her back, and not in her arms " (p. 64). No descrip- 
tion of the means used to support the child. 

On page 193 of M. C. Buet's Madagascar la Reine des lies Africaines, there is a 
plate of a woman carrying a child, placed in a sort of hood formed of a fold of the 
outer garment, which may explain Little's statement. 

Wilkinson, Sir J. G. (Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, New York, 
1879) states that the head-rest, or according to Porphyry "a half-cylinder of wood 
in lieu of a pillow," was in general use in Egypt. (Vol. i, pp. 185, 186.) 

Wilkinson adds that the same kind of a pillow is found in China, Japan, and among 
the Ashantees and KaflSrs. This is a very incomplete statement of the peoples who 
use the head-rest; but there is a slight incongruity between his assertion of the uni- 
versal use of this kind of pillow, and that made (Vol. i, p. 417) to the effect that the 
Egyptians commonly slept on couches, because many of those depicted in his plates 
would not have j)ermitted the head-rest to be used on account of their form. He 
says also that the Egyptian bed was often a skin placed on the ground or a frame of 
palm wicker-work like the modern caffass, and in these cases a wooden pillow, cush- 
ioned as in Japan and China, for the rich, might have been employed. 

The Madi women carry their infants in skins which have been dried in the sun 
and scraped clean and smooth with a stone and softened with butter. The skins of 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 231 

goats, gazelles, sheep, and calves are used, the legs being tied together and strung 
over the mother's shoulders. The baby is placed in the skin under the woman's arm, 
with its head behind. Sometimes a gourd is placed over the head to protect it from 
the sun. When older, the child is carried on the arm. (Proc. Roy. Soc, Edinburgh, 
1883-'84, p. 325.) 

NOTES ON OCEANICA. 

Forbes, H. O. (A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago. New York^ 
1885. 8vo.) In Timor-Laut infants are laid ''quite naked * * * on a hard palm 
spathe," which is spread in a siwela or ''rough rattan basket" (pp. 315, 316). Every 
one sleeps on a banquette covered with bamboo mats, and they "rest their heads on 
a piece of squared bamboo with rounded edges" (p. 318). 

Dr. J. G. Garson (Appendix to Part iv, p. 343), describing the Timor-Laut crania 
procured by Forbes, remarks that "all the brachycephalio skulls * * * exhibit 
more or less flattening in the occipital and parieto-occipital region, such as would be 
produced by laying an infant, without any soft material under its head, in a cradle 
like that described." Owing to race intermixture there are two types of cranial con- 
tour in Tinior-Laut; but it is evident that the same conditions must be operative 
whether the head is short or long. The difference is one of degree, not of kind. Dr. 
Garson observes also that "the height of the skulls is in all instances less than the 
breadth," a fact which (although not mentioned as such) is of the same class as that 
of occipital flattening, and apparently due to the same cause, viz, the weight of a 
head incompletely ossified resting on an unyielding surface, and in which restitution 
during growth is prevented by the subsequent use of a wooden x>illow. An isolated 
fact, and of course having only that value in this connection, is stated by Major 
Cambell (Geographical Memoir of Melville Island, north coast of Australia, in Jour. 
Royal Geogr. Soc. London, 1834, Vol. iv). He says that the pillows he saw were 
made of "pieces of soft silky bark, rolled up in several folds" (p. 157), and also that 
their cranial characteristic is that "the back of the head projects very much (p. 
153). * * * The aborigines of Melville and Bathurst Islands are of the same race 
* * * as those throughout New Holland (p. 158). Hard or wooden pillows are 
not universal in warm countries. The Ovahs of Madagascar sit on cushions, lie on 
mats, and have a matted bolster." (Jour. Roy. Geogr. Soc, 1835, Vol. v, p. 332; 
Captain Lewis.) 

Flower, William H. (Fashion in Deformity. Humboldt Library, New York. Vol. 
II, No. 28.) The author reports a statement made to himself by Mr. H. B. Law, to 
the effect that the Dyaks of Arawak practiced artificial flattening of the occiput (p. 
12). 

Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. 2d division. London, 
1887. 8vo.) Among the Dyaks a mat like the Mexican petate, which serves the same 
purpose, is used for a bed. "A bag stuffed with grass answers the purpose of a pil- 
low" (p. 258). 

Reynolds, J. H. (voyage of the U. S. frigate Potomac, New York, 1835, 8vo) states 
that the heads of the Achenese "are somewhat flat or compressed," but gives no rea- 
son for this (p. l&b). 

GujUemard, Dr. F. H. H. (Cruise of the Marchesa, London. 1886. 8vo.) In the 
Sulu Archipelago the cradle used is a "little basket-woven cot" hung in the middle 
of a long bamboo supported at the ends. The vibrations of the bamboo when pulled 
rock the child. (Vol. ii, p. 14.) Among the Hatam Papuans he saw a number of 
women "with babies strapped upon their backs." (Vol. ii, p. 294.) 

Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. 2d division. London. 
1887. 8vo.) Among the Sumatras "the nose is flattened and the skull is compressed 
from early infancy as a mark of beauty " (p. 289). 

Marsdeu (p. 44). "The Sumatrans flatten the noses, and compress the noses of 
children newly born. They likewise pull out the ears of infants to make them stand 



232 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

at an angle from the head." (Spencer, Des. Soc. Negritto and Malayo-Polynesian 
Races, pp. 20.) 

Feathcrmau, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. London, 1887. 8vo.) 
Among- the Melville Island tribes " a roll of thin, silky bark serves as a pillow at 
night and as a seat in the day-time." (Papuo-Melanesians, 2d divis., p. 120.) 

Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. London, 1887. 8vo.) 
The aboriginal Tasmanian women (Papuans) ''throw over their shoulders the skin of 
an uatanned kangaroo or opossum," in which they place their children ''when carry- 
ing them on the back." (Papuo and Malayo Melanesians, 2d divis., p. 100.) 

Cook, Captain. (Voyage towards the South Pole, etc., ii, p. 34.) Natives of Mal- 
licoUo wear a belt which "they tie so tight over the belly that the shape of their 
bodies is not unlike that of an overgrown pismire." (Spencer, Des. Soc. Negritto 
and Malayo-Polynesian Races, p. 20.) 

Busk, George (Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, Jan., 1877) speaks 
of the "extreme flattening * * * of the frontal region" in certain Mallicollo 
skulls as "artificial." 

Cheever, H. T. "The unnatural flattening of the occiput" (in the Hawaiian head) 
" is thought to be owing to the way the mother holds her babe, which is by the left 
hand supporting the back of its head." (Spencer, Des. Soc. Negritto and Malayo- 
Polynesian Races; pp. 20, 21.) Occipital flattening also promoted by the use of a 
mat pillow or one of wood. 

D'Albertis, L. M. (New Guinea. London, 1881. 8vo). On Yule Island "children 
were carried * * * in netted bags, resting on the backs of their mothers, suspended 
by a cord that passed round the women's heads. * * * Their legs were small in 
proportion to their bodies." (Vol. i, p. 262.) Both on the coast and in the interior 
of Yule Island the natives wear a tight, broad belt, "sometimes woven on the body." 
Compression from this results in distortion, giving the figure a " very peculiar appear- 
ance." (Vol. II, p. 302.) 

Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. London, 1887. 8vo). 
State that the Riara women (Papuo-Melanesian group) carry their children "on their 
backs in a bag of net-work * * * suspended from the forehead by a band" (p. 51). 
Other Papuans carry their infants in the "flap" of a cloak made of cocoa-nut fiber 
(p. 21). The Tasmanians carried them " wrapped in a kangaroo-skin, which hung 
behind the back " (p. 21). 

United States Exploring Expedition (Wilkes). (4to. Vol. vi. "Ethnography." 
Horatio Hale. Philadelphia, 1846.) General remarks on prevalent occipital flatten- 
ing among Polynesians (p. 10). 

In connection with the references to occipital flattening among the Polynesians (a 
fact variously explained), but not in any case, so far, referred to the general custom 
of laying infants on hard mats in warm countries, and especially so in Oceanica, thus 
undesignedly compressing the head by its own weight, the following statements are 
made: Sir J. Bowring (Philipi)ine Islands, London, 1859, 8vo) quotes the ethnolog- 
ical tables of Buzeta to the efl'ect that the "pure Indians" (Tagals) of the Philippines 
have this characteristic, whereas among the Mestizos and Negrittos it is not mentioned 
(p. 176). Wood (Uncivilized Races of Men ; Hartford, 1871 ; 8vo) states that j» child- 
hood the Bushman skull exhibits excessive occipital projectiony and this naturally 
(p. 249). Further, that the same is the case with the Ovambo at all ages (p. 316). 
Finally, that marked convexity of the front as well as the back head distinguishes the 
Wahuraa (p. 400). These facts, hij themselves, cancel any inferences from the excep- 
tional contour of a single cranial bone unsupported by evidence of abnormal growth 
or mechanical interference. Hard mats and a wooden pillow explain the fact of occip- 
ital flattening, where a vertical occiput is not a decided race feature. 

Wallace, A. R. (Australasia, Loudon, 1879, 12mo) quotes Captain Erskine to the 
eflect that among the Polynesian or Mahori race it is the custom to flatten the nose 
during infancy (p. 493). He remarks that the occipital flattening may be artificial 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 233 

(p. 494). Thronjifbout tbis work and the ethnological appendix by Keane, there are 
no notices of distortion other than the above. On page 476 is a portrait of a •' chief 
of Vanitoro, Santa Cruz Islands," whose skull appears to have been compressed and 
elevated by circular bandages. 

Pritchard W. T. (Polynesian Reminiscences. London, 1866. 8vo.) Without de- 
scribing the process, ho states the fact that the Tongaus, Samoans, and Fiji Islanders 
have the custom "of squeezing the heads of infants into * * * a shape in con- 
formity with their ideal of beauty" (p. 417). Remarks on contour of distorted skull 
(pp. 427, 428). 

Martin, Dr. J. (An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands. London, 1818. 
8vo) On Yule Island "children were carried in netted bags, resting on the backs of 
the mothers, suspended by a cord that passed round the women's heads." (Vol. i, p. 
202.) 

Buller, J. (Forty Years in New Zealand. London, 1878. 12mo.) Description of 
nose-flattening and modification of shape of limbs by manipulation (pp. 215,216). 

Foster, Dr. J. R. (Observations made during a Voyage round the World. London, 
1778. 4to). Noticeofantero-posteriordepressionofskullinMallicollo(pp. 242, 267, 268). 
People of Tierra del Fuego, constantly in canoes, have "the legs bent, the knees large, 
and the toes turned inwards" (pp. 251, 268). Remarks on nose-flattening in Tahiti 
(pp. 593, 594). Says Hottentots and natives of Macassar have same custom (p. 594). 
Foster describes the process of flattening the nose in Tahiti, and quotes his descrip- 
tion of the process used by the Hottentots and in Macassar from Goinara, Historia 
General de las Indias (pp.593, 594). 

Turnbull, John (Voyage Round the World, London, 1813, 8vo) remarks that the 
noses of the Otaheitans are " universally flat, occasioned by pressure during their in- 
fancy" (p. 344). Nothing further said. 

Ellis, William. (Polynesian Researches. Loudon, 1829. 8vo.) "During the period 
of infancy" in the Society and Caroline Islands "the children were seldom clothed, 
and were generally laid or carried in a horizontal position. They were never confined 
in bandages or wrapped in tight clothing." In Tahiti " the shape of the child's head" 
find its features were carefully observed, and parents and nurses "often i^resscd or 
spread out the nostrils of the females, as a flat nose was considered by them a mark 
of beauty." (Vol. i, p. 343.) In Tahiti "the forehead and the back of the head of 
the boys were pressed upwards, so that the upper part of the skull appeared in the 
shape of a wedge. This, they said, was done to add to the terror of their aspect." 
(Vol. I, p. 343.) 

In general remarks on the "South Sea Islanders," i. e., natives of the Georgian, So- 
ciety, Caroline, "and adjacent isles," Ellis says they " are generally above the middle 
stature," but their limbs are not correspondingly muscular, though " well formed." 
In mountaitjous parts they have inturned feet and an "exceedingly awkward" gait, 
from using the naked feet in climbing rocks and ravines. Except when distorted, 
" the facial angle is frequently as perpendicular as in the European." Nose-flattening 
is not so general as it was formerly, and the nose "is seldom flat," but "rectilinear 
or aquiline." (Vol. ii, pp. 13-15.) The bed of the majority is a single mat. The 
chiefs Lave many. The pillow is wooden. (Vol. ii, p. 67.) 

On Carpentaria Gulf, Australia, the mothers flatten the nose of their young children 
by pressing it with the hand on the point and laying the child on its face. 

Dr. Karl Scherzer. (Voyage of the iVoram. London, 1863. 8vo. Vol.iii.) Opin- 
ion that artificial flattening of occipital region prevails among women of Tahiti (p. 
220;. Remarks on artificial distortion of head on west coast of North and South 
America {ibid., pp. 347,348,393). 

Wood, J. G. (Uncivilized Races of Men. Hartford, 1871. 8vo.) Occipital flatten- 
ing and nose-flattening among the Tahitans, with description of the process (p. 1059). 
United States Exploring Expedition, i, 339. Method of carrying children illus- 
trated. 



234 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 

Calvert, T.T^^aud J. (Fiji and the Fiji ans. N. Y.,1^59. 8vo.) The bed of a chief, 
made on the banquette, ''is covered with mats, varying in number from two to ten, 
and spread over a thick layer of dried grass and elastic ferns, while on them are 
jilaced two or three neat wooden or bamboo pillows" (p. 108). There was an elabo- 
rate form of general bed. An infant is "anointed with oil and tumeric," but appar- 
ently not swathed in any way. The friends "plait small mats, measuring about 'i 
feet by 1, for tbe mother to nurse her babe upon." There is no notice that its bed is 
not like that described above (p. 138). "Natives nurse the child sitting quite naked 
astride the mother's hip, where it is kept from falling by lier arm " (p. 139). 

The Calverts also describe the nose as "well shaped, with full nostrils, yet distinct 
from the negro type." The "lower extremities" are "of tbe proportion generally 
found among white people." The "mold of the body is decidedly European" (p. 
82). Dr. Pickering (Races of Men, p. 147) says the Fijian crania are unique, have 
"rather the negro outline," wMle "the prolGLle" appears to be " as vertical, if not 
more so, than in the white race." 

Nind,S. (Jour. Royal Geogr. Soc. London, 1832. 8vo. Vol. i.) Describing natives 
of King George's Sound (Swan River colony), Australia, he says: "For the first few 
Avceks the cbild is carried on the left arm in a fold of ihe cloak, but subsequently is 
suspended on the shoulders" (p. 39). 

Foville, A. (Influence des Vetemens sur nos Organes, etc. Paris, 1834), describes 
cases of cranial deformity and mental incapacity produced by bandaging the head 
during infancy. 

Foville quotes Blumenbach (Collectio Craniorum) with reference to cases of antero- 
posterior flattening accompanied by occipital protrusion, and to instances of the 
pyramidal form of the Peruvian skull. He states that Turkish crania grooved by 
ligatures have been found. 

M. Virey (Art. "Enfant," Die. des. Sci. M^d.) asserts that caps drawn tight by 
ribbons will " force the head into a sugar-loaf shape, and produce idiocy" in infants. 

La Bret. (Compt. Rend. Soc. de Biologic. Paris, 1852, iv,etseq.) Sur la deformation 
artiticielle du crane en Am^rique. The author gives a r6sum6 of the opinions of well- 
known writers on the production of cranial deformity by artificial means in North 
and South America. 

Gu^niot (Bull. Soc. de Chir.de Paris, 1870, 2d Ser. x, 382 et aeq.), "Obliquity par 
propulsion unilat6rale," describes a case of flattening of the occipito-parietal 
region on one side, accompanied by corresponding projection of the other, due to 
constant position of the head on a hard surface during infancy.. 

Dr. J. Thurnam (On Synostosis of the Cranial Bones. London, 1865), describes a 
brachycephalous skull from the Round Barrows, with a broad, shallow depression 
passing behind the coronal suture, and over the occiput in the line of the transverse 
spine. This was evidently the effect of some kind of head-dress ; probably, one such 
as MM. Foville and Lunier has described as now in use in France. 

L. A. Gossei (Essai sur les deformations artificielles du crane. Paris, 1855. Ack- 
ermann. Neues Magazin von Baldringcr, Bd. 2, p. 5), says, "Hunc morem in Germania 
satis usitatum esse et Laurenberg; etiam Hamburgensis capita neonatorum vincnlis 
artificiose compressisse." Schade, J. De Singulari cranii cujusdum deforraitate. 
Gryphiai, 1858,11." 

Idem. Lunier (Essai sur les deformations artificielles du ermine. Gosse. Paris, 1865), 
refers to this custom as prevailing in the Franco-Gallic Provinces, and adds, " Itague 
hand difficile intellectu videtur, forsitan etiam huj us cranii deformitateui ca causa 
affectam esse." 11. 

Idem. Andry (Gosse's essai) reports the same in Flanders. Shadel recognizes the 
intra-uterine causes, and for the most part occupies himself with distortion due to 
affections of the sutures, following Hyrtl, Stahl, and Virchow. 

Case of what Gu^niot calls Obliquitd par propulsion unilat6rale, " reported by M. 
Mocquet. (Bull. Soc. Anat. do Paris, 1875, 1. 50.) Cause stated to be in all such cases, 



ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 235 

or most, prolonged pressure over occipito-parietal region from hard pillow, and posi- 
tion and weight of head. 

Bourke, Capt. John G. (Snake-Dance of the Moquis, New York, 1884), describes 
" cradles of flat boards, with a semi-circular screen for the head. These dififer among 
the Moquis in no essential from the ordinary cradle-bo-ard of the North American 
Indians. When the child is placed on it it is wrapped up tightly in blankets, w^ith its 
arms pinioned tightly to its sides" (pp. 240, 241 (. 

Vamb^.ry, A. (Sketches of Central Asia. London, 1868). Swaddling clothes are 
here in general use, and the kindik kesen, or cutter of the same, is a person of much 
consequence, because the act of cutting these out is accompanied by many ceremo- 
nial observances. Vamb^ry seems to indicate, however, that the child is not swathed 
for any length of time. 

Harris, Maj. W. C. (Highlands of Ethiopia. London, 1844). The beaux of the 
Dankalis and Somalis, at Tajura, "employ in lieu of a pillow a small wooden bolster, 
shaped like a crutch-handle, which receives the neck * * * and preserves the 
periwig from derangement" (i, p. 58). 

D'Albertis, L. M. (New Guinea). "Great varieties of type, in color, physiognomy, 
and in the shape of the skull," are found on Pangian Island. Here it is observed 
that parietal compression protrudes the supra-orbital arches (i, p. 29). The same 
statements may, he says, be made of the natives at Oraugerie Bay (i, p. 97). Along 
the whole line, from Soroug to Dorey, the nose varied in form from flat to aquiline 
(i, p. 210). In his plate of the mummified head got from Darnley Island, Torres 
Straits, the type is macrocephalous. 

Blake, Dr. Carter (Appendix Unexplored Syria, Burton &. Drake. London, 1872), 
describes a female skull from the Dayr M^r Musa el Habashi showing artificial "com- 
pression of the parietal bones," probably caused by use of the "suckling-board." 

Davis. (Collection of Voyages and Travels, etc. London, 1745). "In Morria, a 
small, low island, lying in the river of the Amazons," children are thus carried • 
"They take a piece of the rind of a tree, and with one end thereof they fasten the 
child's head, and about the arm-pits and shoulders with the other, and so hang it on 
their backs like a tinker's budget" (ii, p. 487). 

Dawkins, W. Boyd. (Cave Hunting. London, 1874). Refers to Professor Busk's 
notes on the crania of Perthi-Chwaren, in which a skull with "a well-marked de- 
pression across the middle of the occipital bone" is described. This depression had 
the appearance of being "caused by the constriction of a bandage." Except this 
deformation the skull was " well formed and symmetrical," not having any of the 
contours of the tdte annulaire, due, according to MM. Foville and Gosse, to occipital 
compression (p. 170). 

Professor Busk states, in his ethnological notes (Cave Hunting), that the Berber 
contingent of the Moorish invaders of Europe in the eighth, ninth, and tenth cen- 
turies "used to elongate the skull posteriorly and flatten the head" (pp. 170, 171). 

In the same work Professor Dawkins suggests that the flattened occiput of the 
brachycephalous invaders of neolithic Britain "may have been caused by the use of 
an unyielding cradle-board in infancy" ([). 193). Evidently the flattened vertex of 
the Sclaigueaux cave was not natural (p. 219). 



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